Tag Archives: sotto restaurant

No, this is not her after I complained- (funny thought though)… it’s actually a photo on their own website, and Twitter profile. Gross right? (Makes me sure want to go there….)

Last night, we decided to do something nice, try a new place, check out Sotto. First of all, it’s located on Pico, which (if none of you reading live in LA)- it’s a ghetto area. But hey, if the food’s good, let’s go. Our RSVP was for 6:15- we got there at 6:22- 7 min late. Well, thats not such a bad thing, since tables are never ready, people are always late, etc…. and an rsvp at 6:15? EARLY for a Friday night in the LA dining scene. However- Valet was backed up to drop off. There were 5 cars in front of us, all waiting to get in, and the Valet guys were EXTREMELY disorganized. 10 MIN we waited IN the car for us to drop off our car!!! By the time we get to the hostess stand, it is 6:33.

I tell The Hostess (tall, white, long curly hair) our name and rsvp- she looks at me, and says, “well, glad you made it, we were just about to give your table away”. I responded, “Well, your Valet is backed up about 5 cars, and it took 10 min of us waiting out there.” She said,” ok, well it’ll be a handful of minutes, so why don’t you get a drink at the bar.” J says,”Wait, if you were about to give our table away- then it should be ready, right?” Hostess gives us a seething look. I looked around the dining room: 5 two-tops were ready, 3 four-tops were ready, and about 6 spots of the (12?) at the bar were free. I say to her, “It looks like there are plenty of tables, I’m sure one of them is ready?” She just says, “we’ll get you when one is available”.

Hmm. So we go to the bar, not satisfied with the service or her attitude. We pick up a drink menu, and after a couple min, decide what we want. The 2 bartenders are taking their time making nice drinks, no acknowledgement, or “hi guys”, or “I’ll be right with you”. About 5 min go by before the BARBACK takes our order, seeing as we haven’t even been acknowledged. He asks what we want, and then asks for a credit card. REALLY?? This isn’t some SBE club, is it? Where drunk punk kids order drinks and run off? I thought this was a reputable place. When you take my card, it better be after my order, and after my meal- NOT BEFORE.

So as he takes the card, a different Hostess comes to tell us our table is ready. We tell her we just ordered drinks. She says, “ok, close your tab with them, and come get me. I’ll show you to your table.” We wait…. and wait…(another 10 min) for our 2 drinks. Yes they are “libations” made my “mixologists”, but clearly- they were taking TOO long- because Hostess #2 comes to us AGAIN and says, “are you ready yet?” We tell her, “we’re STILL waiting for our drinks!” She replies, “really? ok, I’ll be up front whenever you’re ready.” We tell her,” well, so far, 0- for- 2: bad valet service, and bad drink service”. She shrugs and walks away.

WE WERE READY WHEN WE WALKED IN THE DOOR! (AND SO WAS OUR TABLE!) WE DIDN’T NEED TO GO TO THE BAR AND WAIT ANOTHER 15 MIN FOR A DRINK- WE WERE THERE TO EAT!

We get our drinks- 15 min later- NO JOKE. So it is now almost 7. We get shown to our table, and finally, try to enjoy the rest of night. We sit at 1 of the 3 tables I saw empty for the last half hour, between a nice young couple, and a pair of nice women- ALL who we saw waiting at the bar along side us, and ALL of us got seated at the same time! Since the tables are so close, we all got to talking about coming to this place, etc… ALL OF THEM SAID SAME THING! The Hostess was the most RUDE person! The couple on our right said, “she was so rude, I had to just walk away, I’ve never been talked to like that, I felt like I was going to explode!” The ladies on our left: “Us too! She’s horrible! She gave us such attitude!” The rest of our dinner was fine- food was good, portions were good, service was good- overall: pleasant. Maybe they redeemed themselves in the food? The young couple left, and the women next to us were so friendly, we were talking about life, food, etc… enjoying a new friendship. We passed on dessert, got our checks, and as the 4 of us are finishing our glasses of wine, we see The Hostess walk over.

She leans down between our tables,” are you going to be ordering anything else tonight?” (I HATE BEING RUSHED). All of us say, “no, we’re fine, thank you.” She says,”Well , then I need to ask for your tables, I have people waiting… “(then, looking at J, says without a pause) “I like your ring…. nice watch too”. We all look at her in disbelief- Is she REALLY kicking us out, and trying to make up for it by making CHEAP comments on our jewelry? We just spent $160, and our new friends next to us, the same! J said,” well, great, because it’s the last time you’re ever going to see it.” Hostess stands up and walks away. We all look at each other (the ladies- they both exclaimed, “oh my God, I’ve never been asked to leave!”). We get up, all leaving in silence, I think out of shock. As we pass Valet stand, J says to Hostess,”We won’t be coming back.” Her reply- “Great!”

As we gave the ticket and money to Valet, he said,” just the ticket- you pay the driver.” We ask, “does the driver have change?” Valet says, “yes”. 1o min later, we get our car, and hand driver money. Driver says, ” hold on, I need to get change”.

R U F***ING KIDDING ME?

Another wait while we get change….. finally out of there. The last time we’ll ever see that place. There are too many GREAT Italian restaurants in LA without attitude and AMAZING service- MOZZA, MADEO, TERRONI’S.

To sum it up, (and to quote a friend I told this story to), “You shouldn’t have an attitude if you are located on PICO!”